Toyota

involved in some sort of car-sharing service is getting shorter. Details are sparse, but the Nikkei is reporting that Toyota is going to start a car-sharing service in Japan. Actually, the program is an expansion of a small pilot program that already exists, and the Nikkei says the full launch could see around 1,200 vehicles becoming available across Japan. Toyota would likely develop a new brand for the service, just as Daimler did with Car2go . Currently, the Nikkei says, around 7,000 car-sharing vehicles are in service in Japan. Toyota has previously said that it sees car-sharing as a place to send electric vehicles (as opposed to actually selling them to customers). That was what Bill Reinert said back in 2010 and remains the case for the upcoming all-electric Scion iQ EV. The RAV4 EV , though, will be available soon , just with low, low sales estimates.